Personal life

Kitano is the youngest of Kikujiro Kitano and Saki Kitano's four children. He has two brothers, Shigekazi Kitano and Masaru Kitano (北野大, Kitano Masaru?, May 29, 1942 -) and a sister, Yasuko Kitano. Masaru is a commentator, tarento and professor at Meiji University. He has appeared in several Japanese television shows.

Kitano married Mikiko Kitano (北野幹子, Kitano Mikiko?, 1951-) in 1978. She is a former manzai comedian. Together they have a son, Atsushi Kitano (Kitano Atsushi, Atsushi Kitano? March 31, 1981 -) and a daughter: Shoko Kitano (北野井子, Kitano Shōko?, October 5, 1982 -). Shoko is a former singer and actress. She made her debut as a singer (produced by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki Hayashi) and also appeared as Shoko Matsuda (Matsuda was her mother's maiden name) in her father's film HANA-BI in 1997.


[edit] Other work
Kitano has written over fifty books of poetry, film criticism, and several novels, a few of which have also been adapted into movies by other directors.

Kitano was also notorious for four video games released on the Nintendo Famicom (NES) including Takeshi no Chousenjou (Takeshi's Challenge) by Taito Corporation[1].

He has also become a popular television host. Takeshi's Castle, a game show hosted in the 1980s by Kitano featuring slapstick-style physical contests, has gained cult popularity in the United States (where portions are broadcast on Spike TV as MXC, formerly Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) and in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom where it was given a voiceover by Craig Charles, though these feature very little of Takeshi Kitano as they are heavily edited. More recently, he hosted Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin (roughly meaning "People of Japan, This Doesn't Make Sense!"), a talk show where a large panel of Japanese-speaking foreigners from around the world debate current issues in Japanese society. Another of his shows is Sekai Marumie ("The World Exposed"), a weekly collection of various interesting video clips from around the world, often focusing on the weird aspects of other countries, and with a regular section on daring rescues, taken from the American program Rescue 911. On this show, he plays the child-like idiot, insulting the guests and wearing strange costumes.

The now internationally acclaimed Takeshi Kitano was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Science in engineering by Meiji University on September 7, 2004, 34 years after he dropped out to pursue his career in entertainment.

He was an early supporter of enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa, and actually gave Hikawa his stage name.

On January 21, 2007, his former comic pupil Hideo Higashikokubaru ran for governor of Miyazaki prefecture and was elected.